Chapter 57
Act VIII: The Cat Who Wants to Become Human (1)
-----------
Near graduation, Xiang Cai suddenly relaxed.
They had rehearsed their graduation drama, and everyone got a satisfactory score. He finished his graduation thesis early and waited a few days to participate in the defense.
There were only 20 people in school who have musical theatre as their major. In answering their graduation questionnaire, some have decided that they were going to elementary schools to become music teachers, some have decided they were going abroad to further their studies, some were signing into a brokerage company to make their debut as actors, and some were admitted to be civil servants in the future. Such careers ...There were only five or six people like Xiang Cai who have decided to stay in the musical circle.
Who knows, in a few years, those five or six people might change careers and work in more promising and profitable jobs.
"But, class monitor, I believe that you will still be a musical actor in the next ten or twenty years!" A girl swore. "Even if others change careers, you will not!"
Another person answered: "Yeah, we will be like the characters in a book who appear in front of Xiang Ge in 50 years! I have thought of how to describe his life in a book—“Mr. Xiang Cai, the musical theatre master, dedicated his life to the promotion of musicals, and has worked on the stage for dozens of years, contributing countless outstanding works. After retiring, he became a behind-the-scenes producer and trained a group of outstanding musical actors for our country...'"
With that said, all the students sitting around for lunch laughed.
But their laughter was not sarcastic nor teasing, but a kind that beheld resolute admiration from the hearts.
Xiang Cai was clearly their peer, and even looked smaller than the five thick three thick boys in his class, but his body seemed to contain infinite energy. Whenever he stood on the stage, everyone's eyes would involuntarily chase after him.
[T/N: five big three thick = Five big: hands, feet, ears, shoulder width, and hip. Three thick: waist, legs, neck. So basically he is smaller than the strong guys in his class.]
Become a renown musical actor—this was the goal set by Xiang Cai for himself five years ago.
He would sing and dance on the stage until he was old, until he could no longer make a sound, until his feet could no longer support his body.
No one would question Xiang Cai’s future—even the department leaders said they would wait ten years for, “Outstanding graduate, Well-known alumnus, and Outstanding musical actor Mr. Xiang Cai" to return to school to host a speech conference.
Xiang Cai was thin-skinned. When he was touted by his classmates, his face grew hot. He hurriedly changed the subject: "The class teacher gave me a few tickets to a musical, who is interested?"
"Which musical?"
“The Cat Who Wants to Become Human, an original tour adaptation of the Shiki Theatre Company. “
Although the Shiki Theatre Company had a great reputation, when they heard that this time, it was a children's musical, everyone said it was unfortunate.
Near graduation, there were a lot of things to do, such as packing, moving, looking for a job ... At this time, who had the heart to go to the theater to watch a children's musical for two hours.
Xiang Cai said helplessly: "I have so many tickets in my hand, if you don’t go, who should I give it to?"
"To your little wolfdog!" His roommate teased. "Just treat it as a date."
Shortly after entering the school, Xiang Cai was confessed to by girls from other departments. When Xiang Cai rejected them, he came out of the closet to cut off the coveting of others.
Fortunately, there were a lot of people with open sexual orientation in art schools like theirs, so he was fortunate to have not encountered any discriminatory eyes.
Over two months ago, a classmate ran into Xiang Cai and Cen Manchuan walking hand in hand on the campus, and Xiang Cai gave a low-key boyfriend introduction to everyone.
The young couple was male and male. One was a sports college grass, and the other was a male god in the musical department. They were a really good match.
Xiang Cai heard everyone cue Cen Manchuan, and shook his head helplessly: "He can't appreciate a musical, he falls asleep every time he sees half of it."
He felt that this sounded a bit like resentment, and was afraid of his classmates' misunderstanding. He hurried to add: "In fact, I don’t blame him. He took me to watch a soccer game before, and I couldn't understand it. I couldn’t tell when and why he was screaming and shouting, and didn’t know how he could be so excited. "
"I understand all too well!" A girl who was listening slapped her thighs in anger. "My boyfriend had dragged me to watch Guoan play soccer, and there were actually audience members on the scene banging gongs and drums, and shouting slogans. They were more rowdy than fans supportive of girl group bands. Neat! I didn’t understand what was so interesting and could only play with my mobile phone. He ended up arguing with me after the event, saying that I did not respect his hobbies ...” She said angrily, “I was so mad I turned him into an ex-boyfriend last week!"
Xiang Cai was taken aback, and asked quickly, "Haven’t you been associated together for years now? You broke up with such a contradiction?"
The girl shrugged: "On the surface, it seems like a minor contradiction. In fact, these problems had gradually accumulated ... at the threshold, it concluded with a bang."
No one knew what was the last straw that crushed the camel’s back.
Xiang Cai was silent.
The girl smiled bitterly: "Actually, about breaking up ... both of us faintly had a hunch. You see, I am about to graduate. I am a graduate student and he is working. Even if we do not break up now, the difference in our life situations will become greater and build up in the future, and we will definitely break up then. "
It was said that graduation season was break-up season. How many couples who used to be sweet in school could enter the palace of marriage?
In particular, when one person was about to enter society and endure such warm and cold human interaction, the other person had to stay in the ivory tower and study with ease ... Their common language would become fewer and fewer.
The girl was sensitive, and her eyes were red as she spoke: "In fact, common language contains too many things, from hobbies to life planning. He wanted me to graduate and then get married, but I thought that I was still young; I wanted to fight for career regeneration first, but he wanted me to give birth while studying...The road of life is too long. If one wants to climb the peak to the east while the other one wants to take a ride to the west ... in the end, both will butt heads and blood will flow."
After talking about this heavy topic, the good mood disappeared.
After lunch was over, Xiang Cai looked at the tickets in his hand and finally decided to call Cen Manchuan.
No one was going to break up if they were in love— Xiang Cai hoped to work hard and cultivate a high tacit understanding with Cen Manchuan; he did not want to let this relationship sink into the swamp.
Fortunately, Cen Manchuan would never let him down.
His golden retriever picked up the phone as fast as he could; Xiang Cai could imagine how fast his tail swung across the telephone line.
"Cai Cai!" Cen Manchuan said, "What's the matter for you to call me?"
Xiang Cai said: "I have a few tickets for a musical with me. Do you want to see it?"
"Okay! No problem!" Cen Manchuan didn't even ask about the date, agreeing in a flash. He couldn't remember how many times he had fallen asleep while watching a musical with Xiang Cai before. "Yes, how many tickets do you have, can I ask a few friends to see it together?"
"There are a lot of tickets ..." Xiang Cai reminded him, "But the genre of this musical is a children's musical. The plot is a bit naive. Are you sure your friends will like it?"
"Sure they’ll like it!" Cen Manchuan vowed, "Those stupids are quite naive!"
"..."
So it was decided.
...
This time, touring in China was the Shiki Theatre Company of Japan. Like Takarazuka, it was a well-known stage theater company in Asia. It integrated production, rehearsal, and artist brokering. It was a behemoth with a long history.
The Cat Who Wants to Become Human is the crew’s adaptation of a Japanese fairy tale of the same name. Since it was staged in 1979, it had performed over 2,000 shows in the past forty years.
On the day of the performance, Xiang Cai waited early at the entrance of the theater. At seven o'clock, Cen Manchuan arrived on time.
Behind Cen Manchuan, stood seven tall boys with a minimum height of 1.85 meters. The muscles on their bodies were each more terrifying than the next.
Xiang Cai, who was only 1.78 meters tall, felt as if he was standing in a forest of giants. He fell silent.
Because it was a children's play, all those who went in and out were children held by their parents.
Some of the little peas did not even reach the thighs of the "giants", and each of their necks twisted one hundred and twenty degrees, looking at the big brothers in surprise.
Xiang Cai was embarrassed to death. The giants were also embarrassed to death.
Only Cen Manchuan was born without knowing the word embarrassment.
"Cai Cai!" He waved enthusiastically, "I'll introduce you, these are all my brothers. They wanted to see you in particular! This is Mao Quan, who practices long-distance running, you can call him Datui [T/N: thighs]; Gao Xing, who practices high jumps, you can call him Old Gao... "
Xiang Cai understood.
There dared to be a group of "normal people" to see him, this "pervert".
...It wasn’t until then that Xiang Cai found out that he was being very hostile.
Xiang Cai took the initiative to reach out to them: "Hello, I always hear Manchuan mentioning his brothers, it’s a pleasure to meet you."
But his hand hung in the air for more than ten seconds. The several giants played ‘you look at me and I look at you’. Mao Quan finally cautiously reached out his hand, shook his fingertips quickly, and put his hand back.
Xiang Cai: "..."
Cen Manchuan was not blind, immediately frowning and asking, "What’s the matter with you? Xiang Cai has no infectious disease on his body, why shake his hand so crookedly?"
"No ..." Mao Quan scratched his head. Although he was tall, his face was very young, with a reckless innocence. "Isn’t this a 'friend's wife'? We do not want to take advantage of your partner."
Xiang Cai felt a little uncomfortable.
He wanted to tell them that he was the same gender as them—there was no need for averting suspicion.
But Xiang Cai thought, forget it. He was in love with Cen Manchuan, not with Cen Manchuan's brothers. Let them come to witness their love as they wanted to.
Xiang Cai handed them the tickets, and the nine big boys lined up to check their tickets and walk into the theater.
Their average height was too high and too conspicuous, so they attracted a lot of attention when they entered, with endless noise after they were seated.
The sporty young men had no choice but to nail their heads to the chairs.
Cen Manchuan wanted to pull Xiang Cai into his circle of friends too. He knew how his friends talked about Xiang Cai behind his back, so he desperately shaped this opportunity, wanting the two parties to merge and show them how excellent Xiang Cai was.
Unfortunately, he chose the wrong method.
Soon, the interior lights dimmed and the curtain opened—the musical began.
The Cat Who Wants to Become Human was a fairy tale about the adventures of a kitten.
The cat begged the magician to turn himself into a human, and started a world of exploration. The cat met many different people and things. He witnessed sorrow and joy, encountered trouble, and also gained a lot of happiness.
Because this show was for children, the actors on the stage were very exaggerated. They sat and cried for a while, then laughed so hard their stomachs shook for a while. All their actions were wide open. The male protagonist cat always had to jump up and down, non-stop. The lighting, soundtrack, color of clothing ... everything was more "noisy" than the next thing.
The children watched it with interest, but the big friends who stumbled into the scene felt their scalps tingle one by one.
Ten minutes into the opening, Mao Quan said, "That ... I'll go to the bathroom."
Then Mao Quan never returned.
Ten minutes later, Gao Xing said, "Well ... I'll go and smoke."
Then Gao Xing never returned.
Immediately afterwards, the others successively offered excuses such as answering a phone, buying a drink, finding their teacher for something, etc. One after another, they slipped out of the theater.
Then none of them returned.
Was Xiang Cai angry? Xiang Cai was not angry, he was calm.
The noble swan would never have the same knowledge of an uncivilized gibbon.
All he needed was his golden retriever boyfriend.
—The next second, Cen Manchuan yawned, crooked his head, and leaned on Xiang Cai’s shoulder.
Xiang Cai: I'm elegant, I'm not angry :)
-----------
Near graduation, Xiang Cai suddenly relaxed.
They had rehearsed their graduation drama, and everyone got a satisfactory score. He finished his graduation thesis early and waited a few days to participate in the defense.
There were only 20 people in school who have musical theatre as their major. In answering their graduation questionnaire, some have decided that they were going to elementary schools to become music teachers, some have decided they were going abroad to further their studies, some were signing into a brokerage company to make their debut as actors, and some were admitted to be civil servants in the future. Such careers ...There were only five or six people like Xiang Cai who have decided to stay in the musical circle.
Who knows, in a few years, those five or six people might change careers and work in more promising and profitable jobs.
"But, class monitor, I believe that you will still be a musical actor in the next ten or twenty years!" A girl swore. "Even if others change careers, you will not!"
Another person answered: "Yeah, we will be like the characters in a book who appear in front of Xiang Ge in 50 years! I have thought of how to describe his life in a book—“Mr. Xiang Cai, the musical theatre master, dedicated his life to the promotion of musicals, and has worked on the stage for dozens of years, contributing countless outstanding works. After retiring, he became a behind-the-scenes producer and trained a group of outstanding musical actors for our country...'"
With that said, all the students sitting around for lunch laughed.
But their laughter was not sarcastic nor teasing, but a kind that beheld resolute admiration from the hearts.
Xiang Cai was clearly their peer, and even looked smaller than the five thick three thick boys in his class, but his body seemed to contain infinite energy. Whenever he stood on the stage, everyone's eyes would involuntarily chase after him.
[T/N: five big three thick = Five big: hands, feet, ears, shoulder width, and hip. Three thick: waist, legs, neck. So basically he is smaller than the strong guys in his class.]
Become a renown musical actor—this was the goal set by Xiang Cai for himself five years ago.
He would sing and dance on the stage until he was old, until he could no longer make a sound, until his feet could no longer support his body.
No one would question Xiang Cai’s future—even the department leaders said they would wait ten years for, “Outstanding graduate, Well-known alumnus, and Outstanding musical actor Mr. Xiang Cai" to return to school to host a speech conference.
Xiang Cai was thin-skinned. When he was touted by his classmates, his face grew hot. He hurriedly changed the subject: "The class teacher gave me a few tickets to a musical, who is interested?"
"Which musical?"
“The Cat Who Wants to Become Human, an original tour adaptation of the Shiki Theatre Company. “
Although the Shiki Theatre Company had a great reputation, when they heard that this time, it was a children's musical, everyone said it was unfortunate.
Near graduation, there were a lot of things to do, such as packing, moving, looking for a job ... At this time, who had the heart to go to the theater to watch a children's musical for two hours.
Xiang Cai said helplessly: "I have so many tickets in my hand, if you don’t go, who should I give it to?"
"To your little wolfdog!" His roommate teased. "Just treat it as a date."
Shortly after entering the school, Xiang Cai was confessed to by girls from other departments. When Xiang Cai rejected them, he came out of the closet to cut off the coveting of others.
Fortunately, there were a lot of people with open sexual orientation in art schools like theirs, so he was fortunate to have not encountered any discriminatory eyes.
Over two months ago, a classmate ran into Xiang Cai and Cen Manchuan walking hand in hand on the campus, and Xiang Cai gave a low-key boyfriend introduction to everyone.
The young couple was male and male. One was a sports college grass, and the other was a male god in the musical department. They were a really good match.
Xiang Cai heard everyone cue Cen Manchuan, and shook his head helplessly: "He can't appreciate a musical, he falls asleep every time he sees half of it."
He felt that this sounded a bit like resentment, and was afraid of his classmates' misunderstanding. He hurried to add: "In fact, I don’t blame him. He took me to watch a soccer game before, and I couldn't understand it. I couldn’t tell when and why he was screaming and shouting, and didn’t know how he could be so excited. "
"I understand all too well!" A girl who was listening slapped her thighs in anger. "My boyfriend had dragged me to watch Guoan play soccer, and there were actually audience members on the scene banging gongs and drums, and shouting slogans. They were more rowdy than fans supportive of girl group bands. Neat! I didn’t understand what was so interesting and could only play with my mobile phone. He ended up arguing with me after the event, saying that I did not respect his hobbies ...” She said angrily, “I was so mad I turned him into an ex-boyfriend last week!"
Xiang Cai was taken aback, and asked quickly, "Haven’t you been associated together for years now? You broke up with such a contradiction?"
The girl shrugged: "On the surface, it seems like a minor contradiction. In fact, these problems had gradually accumulated ... at the threshold, it concluded with a bang."
No one knew what was the last straw that crushed the camel’s back.
Xiang Cai was silent.
The girl smiled bitterly: "Actually, about breaking up ... both of us faintly had a hunch. You see, I am about to graduate. I am a graduate student and he is working. Even if we do not break up now, the difference in our life situations will become greater and build up in the future, and we will definitely break up then. "
It was said that graduation season was break-up season. How many couples who used to be sweet in school could enter the palace of marriage?
In particular, when one person was about to enter society and endure such warm and cold human interaction, the other person had to stay in the ivory tower and study with ease ... Their common language would become fewer and fewer.
The girl was sensitive, and her eyes were red as she spoke: "In fact, common language contains too many things, from hobbies to life planning. He wanted me to graduate and then get married, but I thought that I was still young; I wanted to fight for career regeneration first, but he wanted me to give birth while studying...The road of life is too long. If one wants to climb the peak to the east while the other one wants to take a ride to the west ... in the end, both will butt heads and blood will flow."
After talking about this heavy topic, the good mood disappeared.
After lunch was over, Xiang Cai looked at the tickets in his hand and finally decided to call Cen Manchuan.
No one was going to break up if they were in love— Xiang Cai hoped to work hard and cultivate a high tacit understanding with Cen Manchuan; he did not want to let this relationship sink into the swamp.
Fortunately, Cen Manchuan would never let him down.
His golden retriever picked up the phone as fast as he could; Xiang Cai could imagine how fast his tail swung across the telephone line.
"Cai Cai!" Cen Manchuan said, "What's the matter for you to call me?"
Xiang Cai said: "I have a few tickets for a musical with me. Do you want to see it?"
"Okay! No problem!" Cen Manchuan didn't even ask about the date, agreeing in a flash. He couldn't remember how many times he had fallen asleep while watching a musical with Xiang Cai before. "Yes, how many tickets do you have, can I ask a few friends to see it together?"
"There are a lot of tickets ..." Xiang Cai reminded him, "But the genre of this musical is a children's musical. The plot is a bit naive. Are you sure your friends will like it?"
"Sure they’ll like it!" Cen Manchuan vowed, "Those stupids are quite naive!"
"..."
So it was decided.
...
This time, touring in China was the Shiki Theatre Company of Japan. Like Takarazuka, it was a well-known stage theater company in Asia. It integrated production, rehearsal, and artist brokering. It was a behemoth with a long history.
The Cat Who Wants to Become Human is the crew’s adaptation of a Japanese fairy tale of the same name. Since it was staged in 1979, it had performed over 2,000 shows in the past forty years.
On the day of the performance, Xiang Cai waited early at the entrance of the theater. At seven o'clock, Cen Manchuan arrived on time.
Behind Cen Manchuan, stood seven tall boys with a minimum height of 1.85 meters. The muscles on their bodies were each more terrifying than the next.
Xiang Cai, who was only 1.78 meters tall, felt as if he was standing in a forest of giants. He fell silent.
Because it was a children's play, all those who went in and out were children held by their parents.
Some of the little peas did not even reach the thighs of the "giants", and each of their necks twisted one hundred and twenty degrees, looking at the big brothers in surprise.
Xiang Cai was embarrassed to death. The giants were also embarrassed to death.
Only Cen Manchuan was born without knowing the word embarrassment.
"Cai Cai!" He waved enthusiastically, "I'll introduce you, these are all my brothers. They wanted to see you in particular! This is Mao Quan, who practices long-distance running, you can call him Datui [T/N: thighs]; Gao Xing, who practices high jumps, you can call him Old Gao... "
Xiang Cai understood.
There dared to be a group of "normal people" to see him, this "pervert".
...It wasn’t until then that Xiang Cai found out that he was being very hostile.
Xiang Cai took the initiative to reach out to them: "Hello, I always hear Manchuan mentioning his brothers, it’s a pleasure to meet you."
But his hand hung in the air for more than ten seconds. The several giants played ‘you look at me and I look at you’. Mao Quan finally cautiously reached out his hand, shook his fingertips quickly, and put his hand back.
Xiang Cai: "..."
Cen Manchuan was not blind, immediately frowning and asking, "What’s the matter with you? Xiang Cai has no infectious disease on his body, why shake his hand so crookedly?"
"No ..." Mao Quan scratched his head. Although he was tall, his face was very young, with a reckless innocence. "Isn’t this a 'friend's wife'? We do not want to take advantage of your partner."
Xiang Cai felt a little uncomfortable.
He wanted to tell them that he was the same gender as them—there was no need for averting suspicion.
But Xiang Cai thought, forget it. He was in love with Cen Manchuan, not with Cen Manchuan's brothers. Let them come to witness their love as they wanted to.
Xiang Cai handed them the tickets, and the nine big boys lined up to check their tickets and walk into the theater.
Their average height was too high and too conspicuous, so they attracted a lot of attention when they entered, with endless noise after they were seated.
The sporty young men had no choice but to nail their heads to the chairs.
Cen Manchuan wanted to pull Xiang Cai into his circle of friends too. He knew how his friends talked about Xiang Cai behind his back, so he desperately shaped this opportunity, wanting the two parties to merge and show them how excellent Xiang Cai was.
Unfortunately, he chose the wrong method.
Soon, the interior lights dimmed and the curtain opened—the musical began.
The Cat Who Wants to Become Human was a fairy tale about the adventures of a kitten.
The cat begged the magician to turn himself into a human, and started a world of exploration. The cat met many different people and things. He witnessed sorrow and joy, encountered trouble, and also gained a lot of happiness.
Because this show was for children, the actors on the stage were very exaggerated. They sat and cried for a while, then laughed so hard their stomachs shook for a while. All their actions were wide open. The male protagonist cat always had to jump up and down, non-stop. The lighting, soundtrack, color of clothing ... everything was more "noisy" than the next thing.
The children watched it with interest, but the big friends who stumbled into the scene felt their scalps tingle one by one.
Ten minutes into the opening, Mao Quan said, "That ... I'll go to the bathroom."
Then Mao Quan never returned.
Ten minutes later, Gao Xing said, "Well ... I'll go and smoke."
Then Gao Xing never returned.
Immediately afterwards, the others successively offered excuses such as answering a phone, buying a drink, finding their teacher for something, etc. One after another, they slipped out of the theater.
Then none of them returned.
Was Xiang Cai angry? Xiang Cai was not angry, he was calm.
The noble swan would never have the same knowledge of an uncivilized gibbon.
All he needed was his golden retriever boyfriend.
—The next second, Cen Manchuan yawned, crooked his head, and leaned on Xiang Cai’s shoulder.
Xiang Cai: I'm elegant, I'm not angry :)
***
I feel bad for caicai ಥ_ಥ
ReplyDeleteHe needs a better boyfriend, really.. poor swan
ReplyDelete